Not a big deal, you say?
Well, what if it was on MARS?
Me, I'm suspicious. I have just one question, unanswered by this article--
What is the daily range of temperatures where the lander is?
The so-called ice was only an inch or so beneath the surface dust. If it was ice, then the area must be below 32* F and VERY dry and hot in the daytime, especially if the consensus is the ice vaporized directly instead of going liquid first.
So is this an area that goes from frozen to smoking every day? But if it's smoking hot and dry during the daytime, why is the ice still partially there in the second photo? Ice doesn't vaporize SLOWLY, does it? If the transition is slow, wouldn't there be liquid?
For me, that stuff could have been dust that blew away. Without actual video to show the process and the time involved, it's speculation.
Scientists are determined to find ice on Mars, because they're determined to find LIFE on Mars, past or present.
Life on another planet would go a long way to proving the Darwinian theory that all begins randomly, and would go an equally long way to proving Bible believers are idiots.
Friday, June 20, 2008
AP dissembles and deceives for the gazillionth time
Since I expect to hear from their lawyers if I do, I have decided not to do it.
I won't be cutting and pasting anything from this story. The Associated Press has served notice that it will harass bloggers until they stop, citing 'fair use' and pretending the bloggers are somehow stealing their 'product' to make money.
Most bloggers don't make any money, and the ones who do are not the ones who are using AP material. They are writing their own, very well, and that is WHY they are making money.
The AP, though, is desperate to 'protect its content' from the 21st century. So no cut-n-pastes.
I can link to Yahoo News, though, and so here it is. It's a story about Scott McClellan's appearance on Capitol Hill today to hawk his book some more - er, to testify before the house judiciary committee and tell them everything he doesn't actually know about the White House's activities.
His most shocking charge? The White House was 'secretive'.
He's just whining that he didn't get on the A list most of the time.
The AP's contribution to the sleaze, though, is their deliberate misrepresentation of the Libby case. McClellan complains that the White House told him to say to the public that Scooter Libby was not involved in the Plame affair. The story then points out the both Rove and Libby had in fact discussed Plame with reporters.
But we know, and the story even MENTIONS a few lines later, that it was Richard Armitage who 'leaked' the fact that Plame was in the CIA, and those reporters were actually asking Rove and Libby if THEY had heard that she was in the CIA.
They already knew, courtesy of Armitage, who kept this fact to himself for too long but did reveal it to Fitzgerald THREE WEEKS into the two year long investigation.
So Fitzgerald claimed to be asking a question for which he already HAD, and KNEW he had, the answer. But he kept on, spending tax dollars like water, determined to catch out SOMEBODY in the White House.
And eventually, Libby was caught telling two different stories about the same event, unfortunately contradicting some sworn testimony and thus falling afoul of his own oath to tell the truth.
Libby was NOT convicted for leaking Plame's name. Armitage did that. Fitzgerald did not assert that ANYONE from the White House leaked Plame's name.
This story says Plame 'claims' the White House 'quietly' revealed her name in order to get back at her husband for his perfidy. It also says McClellan agrees.
But the fact is that ARMITAGE leaked her name, and after he did it, it was LEAKED. You can't have multiple leaks of the same information in different weeks. In the first case it is a secret, and in the second it's PUBLICLY KNOWN. The reporters were trying to get White House people to say it, but they already KNEW.
This story very carefully and deliberately shades the truth in order to continue the myth that the White House 'got revenge' on the Plame/Wilson dynamic duo. This is simply NOT SO.
The other inconvenient facts are forgotten as well, such as the fact that she had been deskbound in Washington for six years and no longer qualified as a secret agent under the law that forbids mentioning their names. Her 'operative' career was long over, and she was outside the window of protection. Fitzgerald overlooked this, as does AP here.
Bottom line is, McClellan is still trying to sell his book. Nobody who didn't believe this carp before is going to suddenly be convinced by McClellan's whiny grievances. He puts on display the truth, that he didn't know much and wasn't invited to as many meetings as he thinks he should have been.
Not to mention Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the "tough grandma" of Texas politics who failed to unseat Rick Perry as governor and probably begrudged this failure to lack of support from Bush, is the proud mother of little Scottie. Blood is thicker than decency, especially in Washington.
All told, sickening behavior from Scott and invidious twisting of history by AP combine to induce nausea on a number of levels. Ick.
I won't be cutting and pasting anything from this story. The Associated Press has served notice that it will harass bloggers until they stop, citing 'fair use' and pretending the bloggers are somehow stealing their 'product' to make money.
Most bloggers don't make any money, and the ones who do are not the ones who are using AP material. They are writing their own, very well, and that is WHY they are making money.
The AP, though, is desperate to 'protect its content' from the 21st century. So no cut-n-pastes.
I can link to Yahoo News, though, and so here it is. It's a story about Scott McClellan's appearance on Capitol Hill today to hawk his book some more - er, to testify before the house judiciary committee and tell them everything he doesn't actually know about the White House's activities.
His most shocking charge? The White House was 'secretive'.
He's just whining that he didn't get on the A list most of the time.
The AP's contribution to the sleaze, though, is their deliberate misrepresentation of the Libby case. McClellan complains that the White House told him to say to the public that Scooter Libby was not involved in the Plame affair. The story then points out the both Rove and Libby had in fact discussed Plame with reporters.
But we know, and the story even MENTIONS a few lines later, that it was Richard Armitage who 'leaked' the fact that Plame was in the CIA, and those reporters were actually asking Rove and Libby if THEY had heard that she was in the CIA.
They already knew, courtesy of Armitage, who kept this fact to himself for too long but did reveal it to Fitzgerald THREE WEEKS into the two year long investigation.
So Fitzgerald claimed to be asking a question for which he already HAD, and KNEW he had, the answer. But he kept on, spending tax dollars like water, determined to catch out SOMEBODY in the White House.
And eventually, Libby was caught telling two different stories about the same event, unfortunately contradicting some sworn testimony and thus falling afoul of his own oath to tell the truth.
Libby was NOT convicted for leaking Plame's name. Armitage did that. Fitzgerald did not assert that ANYONE from the White House leaked Plame's name.
This story says Plame 'claims' the White House 'quietly' revealed her name in order to get back at her husband for his perfidy. It also says McClellan agrees.
But the fact is that ARMITAGE leaked her name, and after he did it, it was LEAKED. You can't have multiple leaks of the same information in different weeks. In the first case it is a secret, and in the second it's PUBLICLY KNOWN. The reporters were trying to get White House people to say it, but they already KNEW.
This story very carefully and deliberately shades the truth in order to continue the myth that the White House 'got revenge' on the Plame/Wilson dynamic duo. This is simply NOT SO.
The other inconvenient facts are forgotten as well, such as the fact that she had been deskbound in Washington for six years and no longer qualified as a secret agent under the law that forbids mentioning their names. Her 'operative' career was long over, and she was outside the window of protection. Fitzgerald overlooked this, as does AP here.
Bottom line is, McClellan is still trying to sell his book. Nobody who didn't believe this carp before is going to suddenly be convinced by McClellan's whiny grievances. He puts on display the truth, that he didn't know much and wasn't invited to as many meetings as he thinks he should have been.
Not to mention Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the "tough grandma" of Texas politics who failed to unseat Rick Perry as governor and probably begrudged this failure to lack of support from Bush, is the proud mother of little Scottie. Blood is thicker than decency, especially in Washington.
All told, sickening behavior from Scott and invidious twisting of history by AP combine to induce nausea on a number of levels. Ick.
Obama gets steadily scarier....
From the Ft. Wayne Gazette comes this story about the various propositions of the two presidential candidates. At the end, it brings up a few things about Barack Hussein Obama. Excerpts in blue, my comments in black--
"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday he would bring Osama bin Laden to justice in a way that wouldn’t allow the terrorist mastermind to become a martyr, but he may be killed if the U.S. government finds him.
Bring him to justice in a way that doesn't allow him to become a martyr. Capture him alive, in other words. Exactly how he plans to do this he doesn't say, and no intrepid reporters managed to ask. Then he waffles, saying bin Laden might get killed in the process of being taken alive.
...he said the Nuremberg trials for the prosecution of Nazi leaders are an inspiration because the victors acted to advance universal principles and set a tone for the creation of an international order.
Obama still hasn't figured out that the Nuremberg Trials were a MILITARY TRIBUNAL in which the guilty parties had NO habeus corpus rights, just like the battlefield-captured terrorists at Guantanamo (until last week). He has been quoted last week as saying the Supreme Court justices were right to give these terrorists the rights of U.S. citizens on U. S. soil, but praises a proceeding which did no such thing for Nazi prisoners.
Interestingly, he thinks of the Nuremberg Trials as having an entirely new 'tone', but they actually were conducted based on established international law and trial procedures. The only thing 'new' is that they happened, which was a consequence of the ending of that war and the defeat of the Nazis. The path and purpose of the proceedings had been established for some time. The League of Nations and the Geneva Conventions and so forth had been in place for years.
The old team having met with some public relations difficulties.
The meeting came after rival presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign said Obama had a pre-9/11 mind-set for promoting criminal trials for terrorists."
We'll see how much he actually likes the Nuremberg Trials.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
We can't drill our way out of this addiction
So far this week, I've heard over a half dozen prominent democrats say this, verbatim. They throw in a couple of figures, also pretty much verbatim from the DNC fax of talking points.
Their figures?
We use 25% of the world's oil production while our national reserves are only 2% of the world's reserves. Ergo, summa, non bona, yada yada.
This is apples to oranges. RESERVES and PRODUCTION are two different things. Provable reserves are VASTLY larger than annual production. 2% of provable reserves is an ENORMOUS amount of oil.
The dems are attempting to hoodwink America into believing that tapping these reserves would have a minimal effect on price, but their numbers are deeply deceitful. And they're swimming against a tide of voter anger, where this week even LIBERALS are polled as supporting new drilling 46% vs. 35% against. The nation overall is more than 60% in favor of new drilling.
I always wondered what the price of change was, and apparently it's $4 a gallon.
Their figures?
We use 25% of the world's oil production while our national reserves are only 2% of the world's reserves. Ergo, summa, non bona, yada yada.
This is apples to oranges. RESERVES and PRODUCTION are two different things. Provable reserves are VASTLY larger than annual production. 2% of provable reserves is an ENORMOUS amount of oil.
The dems are attempting to hoodwink America into believing that tapping these reserves would have a minimal effect on price, but their numbers are deeply deceitful. And they're swimming against a tide of voter anger, where this week even LIBERALS are polled as supporting new drilling 46% vs. 35% against. The nation overall is more than 60% in favor of new drilling.
I always wondered what the price of change was, and apparently it's $4 a gallon.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Gore's weight gain matched by his electric bill...
Looks like Algore hasn't finished all his 'green power' modifications at the palatial Gore mansion in Tennessee... his electric bill is higher than ever.
Al Gore uses more energy in the form of electricity in a month than the average American uses in a year. And that's just at HOME, never mind all the jetsetting around in his Gulfstream private planes and all the fancy hotels at faraway leftist thinktank (drunktank) meetings.
His 'people' claim he's buying electricity from alternative sources like windmills and so forth, so he has a smaller 'footprint' (but still a huge buttprint), but I'd like to see how his house is wired... is it a separate grid that delivers these alternative types of electricity? No, it's just an accounting trick, like when he 'donates' his profits from his movie to 'charity' and it turns out to be an ecological charity owned BY HIM, which pays him a hefty salary.
Al Gore uses more energy in the form of electricity in a month than the average American uses in a year. And that's just at HOME, never mind all the jetsetting around in his Gulfstream private planes and all the fancy hotels at faraway leftist thinktank (drunktank) meetings.
His 'people' claim he's buying electricity from alternative sources like windmills and so forth, so he has a smaller 'footprint' (but still a huge buttprint), but I'd like to see how his house is wired... is it a separate grid that delivers these alternative types of electricity? No, it's just an accounting trick, like when he 'donates' his profits from his movie to 'charity' and it turns out to be an ecological charity owned BY HIM, which pays him a hefty salary.
Friday, June 13, 2008
doing my small part....
.. to spread the work and the word of Melanie Phillips, the last remaining wise Briton.
Well, sometimes it SEEMS that way. :-)
Some have said that because Obama was a muslim only as a child, well then 'apostate' does not apply, as Islam withholds the penalty of death if the change is made in childhood.
As Melanie points out, Obama was raised and schooled as a Muslim for at least part of his childhood, but did not 'become a Christian' (in quotes because in my view he did not and is not) until he was almost 30.
This means the death penalty for apostasy is very much in play.
Is it going to be the KKKlan? Some redneck? A bitter, Bible-clinging, unemployed, gun-toting Pennsylvanian shooting him at a gas station, as his wife has suggested?
Not likely.
Could be a virgin-seeking missile, though.
Well, sometimes it SEEMS that way. :-)
Some have said that because Obama was a muslim only as a child, well then 'apostate' does not apply, as Islam withholds the penalty of death if the change is made in childhood.
As Melanie points out, Obama was raised and schooled as a Muslim for at least part of his childhood, but did not 'become a Christian' (in quotes because in my view he did not and is not) until he was almost 30.
This means the death penalty for apostasy is very much in play.
Is it going to be the KKKlan? Some redneck? A bitter, Bible-clinging, unemployed, gun-toting Pennsylvanian shooting him at a gas station, as his wife has suggested?
Not likely.
Could be a virgin-seeking missile, though.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Still waiting...
UPDATE:
Okay, Johnson's gone, 'officially'. Too much heat in the kitchen.
But do not believe for a MOMENT that anything is actually different. It's all nomenclature and verbal gymnastics, as when Obama claimed 'he doesn't work for me, I"m not paying him'. That's true, but irrelevant. The point was, and is, Obama's circle is just jam packed with radicals, corrupt machine types and criminals. And James Johnson is as corrupt as they come. His advice will receive as much consideration as Obama had planned to give it, only now it will not be publicly acknowledged.
/end update
********
Still waiting for ANY associates of Barack Obama to be ordinary, normal Americans with no radical, corrupt or criminal history.
Still waiting.
Lately he's chosen Eric Holder, former Justice guy under Clinton, to help him find a veep. Holder steered lawyers the right way a few years back and secured a pardon for billionaire Marc Rich, a tax fugitive living it up in Europe but wanted here in America by the IRS, and certain to go to prison if he came back. Holder has admitted, apparently, that his purpose in doing this was to earn favors with certain people so that he stood a better chance of becoming Attorney General in the future.
Another superb choice of search committee membership is James Johnson, who will become famous for having friends in high places at Countrywide lending company. Countrywide has come under incredible scrutiny during the 'housing crisis' for steering lower class applicants to higher interest rate mortgages, and there is something to those charges. But Johnson accepted a loan from Countrywide for almost a million dollars, at an interest rate lower than 4% when the going rate was 6%.
This is a gift, tens of thousands of dollars of free money in each year of the mortgage. It makes him beholden to Countrywide's executives, and perhaps to the IRS as well. Obama has simultaneously attacked Countrywide for its contribution to the housing 'crisis' and welcomed aboard one of it's multimillionaire 'friends with benefits' to the search committee for veep!
Johnson, tellingly, is also the second in command of the Perseus Fund. It's founder and captain is George Soros. Nuff said.
It's so bad, even the WaPo has offered up an article about Obama's insider problem. The article, though, fails to mention that Johnson is a partner of Soros. This could be the single biggest problem Obama has, as many Americans will not forget "Betray Us".
Johnson and Holder join Wright and Rezko and who knows how many, when its all over, with more than questionable backgrounds who are now part of the 'Obama legend'.
Does he have ANY associates and friends who are NOT corrupt, radical or criminal?
Still waiting.
Okay, Johnson's gone, 'officially'. Too much heat in the kitchen.
But do not believe for a MOMENT that anything is actually different. It's all nomenclature and verbal gymnastics, as when Obama claimed 'he doesn't work for me, I"m not paying him'. That's true, but irrelevant. The point was, and is, Obama's circle is just jam packed with radicals, corrupt machine types and criminals. And James Johnson is as corrupt as they come. His advice will receive as much consideration as Obama had planned to give it, only now it will not be publicly acknowledged.
/end update
********
Still waiting for ANY associates of Barack Obama to be ordinary, normal Americans with no radical, corrupt or criminal history.
Still waiting.
Lately he's chosen Eric Holder, former Justice guy under Clinton, to help him find a veep. Holder steered lawyers the right way a few years back and secured a pardon for billionaire Marc Rich, a tax fugitive living it up in Europe but wanted here in America by the IRS, and certain to go to prison if he came back. Holder has admitted, apparently, that his purpose in doing this was to earn favors with certain people so that he stood a better chance of becoming Attorney General in the future.
Another superb choice of search committee membership is James Johnson, who will become famous for having friends in high places at Countrywide lending company. Countrywide has come under incredible scrutiny during the 'housing crisis' for steering lower class applicants to higher interest rate mortgages, and there is something to those charges. But Johnson accepted a loan from Countrywide for almost a million dollars, at an interest rate lower than 4% when the going rate was 6%.
This is a gift, tens of thousands of dollars of free money in each year of the mortgage. It makes him beholden to Countrywide's executives, and perhaps to the IRS as well. Obama has simultaneously attacked Countrywide for its contribution to the housing 'crisis' and welcomed aboard one of it's multimillionaire 'friends with benefits' to the search committee for veep!
Johnson, tellingly, is also the second in command of the Perseus Fund. It's founder and captain is George Soros. Nuff said.
It's so bad, even the WaPo has offered up an article about Obama's insider problem. The article, though, fails to mention that Johnson is a partner of Soros. This could be the single biggest problem Obama has, as many Americans will not forget "Betray Us".
Johnson and Holder join Wright and Rezko and who knows how many, when its all over, with more than questionable backgrounds who are now part of the 'Obama legend'.
Does he have ANY associates and friends who are NOT corrupt, radical or criminal?
Still waiting.
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